Abstract

The objective of the present study was to review the recent advances in targeted drug delivery to tumors.Now a days cancer is second cause of death.Despite several advancements in chemotherapy, the real therapy of cancer still remains a challenge.The development of new anti-cancer drugs for the treatment of cancer has not kept pace with the progress in cancer therapy, because of the nonspecific drug distribution resulting in low tumour concentrations and systemic toxicity. The main hindrance for the distribution of anti-cancer agents to the tumour site is the highly disorganized tumour vasculature, high blood viscosity in the tumour,and high interstitial pressure within the tumour tissue.Recent approaches to fight tumor is to impede and interfere with its blood supply i.e turning off angiogenesis or neovascularisation. This review discusses different strategies employed for the delivery of anti-cancer agents to tumours, such as through EPR effect, local chemotherapeutic approaches using drug delivery systems, and special strategies such as receptor-mediated delivery, pH-based carriers,application of ultrasound and delivery to resistant tumour cells and brain using nanoparticles.